Archive for September, 2009

For the last several years, the conservative religious right wing has been effective in winning over the hearts and “minds” of a large percentage of the American people. They’ve even managed this in areas that make no sense. Tort reform. Health care reform. Unions. Across the United States, working class people are embracing policies in these areas that will ultimately, over the medium and long term, do them great harm.

I wondered what happened to all of the liberals that I had hoped to pal around with in college. I found a few, but they were far between. I was often the only one in arguments who would take the liberal view. But I didn’t consider myself persecuted. I was just outnumbered, and overall I could have friendly arguments with them. Sometimes they would say stupid things that made my blood boil. It had to do with their racism, and it was a particularly nasty sort of racism.

Then it was time for me to repeat everything I’d told the officers. Having them hanging on my words had been heady, but facing a courtroom full of rapt listeners was almost too much. I’d never had so many people look at me at once. I wanted to hide. Only the knowledge the Carla had to listen to me for a change kept me talking.

While I was living in an Armenian enclave near Boston, this happened: A Turkish-American jeweler with a shop in Somerville was driving his car somewhere around Medford, and was ambushed. Several bullets were fired into his car, killing him and totally ruining the Cadillac. The Armenians partied, and the secret organization of assassins took credit.

Organizations whose goal is profit make decisions through a far different process than entities that don’t, and it is best that way. As a property-tax payer, I can go to an opening meeting of the local city council and voice my opinion. Even if I weren’t a property-tax payer, I could do so, because budget meetings for the government entities are open-door proceedings and have time allotted for public comment. I couldn’t do that at a Medtronics board meeting. I have no influence over the way that Medtronics sets its budget or conducts its business, even if the decisions that they make effect me in some ways.

Hungry Planet combines mesmerizing photos with hands-on displays that explore issues of food in the 21st century —what people eat and where it comes from—as well as how different cultures approach the growing and processing of food.

I am saying that it’s a very big, irrational world out there, and that we should be wary of choosing our targets based on the fact that they will listen to the arguments we make. In many ways, our allies are the easiest people to argue with, just because they care about the same things we do. They are not, however, where the biggest gains in rationality are to be made.

Josh told reporters that it really wasn’t any trouble at all. To bring his gun that is. He routinely grabs his car keys, his wallet, and his loaded pistol on the way out the door. That is, I would guess, because Josh is a gun nut.